sponsors decline invitation to treat

Although Jointly & Severably, the latest play by acclaimed playwright Eleanor Wong, is opening in 10 days, W!LD RICE, the Singapore theatre group producing the play has yet to find themselves a production sponsor.

Despite being written by acclaimed lawyer-playwright Eleanor Wong and produced by W!LD RICE, a professional theatre company founded by well-regarded Artistic Director Ivan Heng, Jointly & Severably has been unsuccessful in getting sponsorship and funding.

"It has been a great challenge to put on a veritable month long festival of three plays. We have not been able to get a production sponsor, and some funding agencies have rejected our applications because of the gay subject matter," said Ivan Heng, Artistic Director, W!LD RICE in an open letter to the community.

The World Premiere of Jointly & Severably, the latest play by Eleanor Wong, as part of a triple bill, entitled Invitation to Treat will run Wednesday, April 9 - 26 at Jubilee Hall, Raffles Hotel, Singapore while the double bill Mergers & Accusations and Wills & Secession will run Wednesday, April 2 - 6.

The three plays follow the journey towards self-discovery and self-actualisation of Ellen Toh, the smart, ambitious and hardworking lesbian lawyer who marries her best friend in a "marriage of convenience" that presents her with the best of both worlds - a socially respectable position, and a husband who accepts her sexual orientation.

"Mergers & Accusations is about personal choices and living in transition while dreaming of, hoping for, and wanting, the 'perfect' future. Wills & Secession explores the corridors of the past; and unravels the bonds of family and faith in the face of disease and death. Jointly & Severably lays bare the struggle for commitment, explodes the meaning of family, love and friendship, and the right of a minority to live and love honestly and fearlessly," says Heng.

Heng hopes that the gay and lesbian community will see and relate to the plays which include "'in' jokes and references that can only be fully appreciated by the GLBT community" and with scripts that were not "dumbed down" to accommodate this straight audience.